Land gives way from under Grand Terrace hillside home

Photo Gallery: Grand Terrace home GRAND TERRACE -- Arthur Jimenez woke to a loud noise in the middle of the night.

"We just heard a big bang," he said. "I thought it was an earthquake. "

Jimenez inspected his house, which sits atop a hill in Grand Terrace, and fell back asleep satisfied.

Then a knock at his front door Tuesday morning forced Jimenez out of bed again.

A government official told Jimenez and his wife, Rosalinda, they needed to evacuate their ranch home immediately. Someone reported the ground below the couple's patio was missing and water was flowing from a broken pipe.

San Bernardino County Fire Capt. Ed Noble said the loud bang Jimenez had heard may have been the foundation cracking.

A portion of the concrete and some land slid down the hill in the direction of a strip mall hundreds of feet below.

No one was injured.

Jimenez said he and his wife purchased the home in 1998 as a fixer-upper because of the "priceless" view overlooking the Inland Empire to the north.

He estimated the home on the 22800 block of Vista Grand Way to be worth about $700,000.

Tuesday afternoon Jimenez stood in front of his home in a driver's cap and red tie talking with reporters as a worker snipped the overhead electric lines leading into the home.

Jimenez took the day off from his physician practice in Victorville to move personal items and necessities to his son's home in nearby Riverside where the couple will be staying until given further notice.

On Wednesday a geological engineer will assess the damage and determine the fate of the home that has government documents posted on the front door describing it as "uninhabitable." It required a member of the Fire Department to accompany any family member into their residence.